tengo un tango

Hello!
You might be able to guess from the title that this blog post comes to you from a spanish speaking country.
Before I continue, let me tell you a funny story. A couple of days ago I had downloaded all the most recent pictures onto the computer in the hostel, and then got bored and thought I´d sort them out the following day. I didn´t realise that the computer in question had one of those screensavers that cycles through all the pictures on the hard drive. I happened to be passing the computer later that evening and saw a full screen version of this picture happily displaying itself to the entire bar. That´s Zoe pretending to be Frida Kahlo. We were developing our South American personalities. Zoe as a tempestuous latin firebrand and Rico the gringo gun runner. There is lots of mileage in this game. I am also a sniper in the next bourne film. although you´d be forgiven for thinking I was playing snooker in that photo.
So here we are! We flew into Santiago (Chile) at some point in the past, which was very South American with its big red flag and colossal virgin. We stayed in a very cute hostel and got straight into hostel life, marvelled at the cheap food and wine, and climbed hills to look at the pollution. We then got a bus through the Andes which was a bit bizarre, we had to get out and show our passports at 4000 metres, head spinning quite spectacularly. It was really quite high. So we are now in Argentina. We stayed in Mendoza for a few days (if you´re trying to work out why you know that name, he was the dad in cities of gold) and I gave Zoe a fringe. Mendoza is a famous wine region so as you can imagine we fitted in quite well. We hired the worlds smallest bikes anmd took ourselves on a tour of the vineyards. Here´s Zoe´s tasting face, and here´s mine. You could see Aconcagua (I really should check these spellings) from the vineyards but it was constantly obscured by telegraph poles. It is the biggest mountain outside the himalayas and at about 7000m is nearly as high as everest. Here´s my best shot. So we had a few days relaxing in Mendoza, and learnt a new word from a fellow traveller, "chillax". Some of these backpackers really are idiots. From there it was an overnight bus to Cordoba. The overnight buses are ace, they have food and wine and videos and the seats are massive and go really far back. I positively look forward to them. As long as the film isn´t too depressing, last time it was Amistad which is about slaves being murdered, so that was cheerful. Cordoba, like everywhere in Argetina, has some nice churches and a cathedral but I won´t bore you with those pictures. OK maybe just the chandeliers.
We took the opportunity offered by the sierras around Cordoba to test out our new found horse riding skills. It was very beautiful and I had a beautiful horse. So did Zoe. How rural is this photo. The two backs in that earlier photo were our friends Tom and Sarah who we are going to visit in Salta after the weekend. They work on boats in the carribean and I´m going to get them to get me a job.
We also visited Alta Gracia which has a nice house thing, and a Che Guevara museum in his childhood home. Here´s his famous motorbike, and guess what, under all that hair and hat, Che Guevara; secret hottie. Here are some people from our hostel, and here´s me sitting next to little Che.
And that´s that really. Cordoba has been fun, we made lots of friends, and I even learnt to play pool. This is one of my favourite drunk photos ever. And here´s a picture of last night´s moon. You´ll notice it´s upside down.
Only 6 weeks to go now! We are going to somewhere called Salta tonight, by overnight bus, I think it´s near Bolivia, (where we hope to bump into Peter and Domingo for those of you who know them, the two blogs will finaly cross!)
All the best,
Rico
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